Under The Mistletoe
by Daydreamr4ever
Summary: A collaboration fic about Melissa and Joey. Christmas themed! Not related to the Christmas special at all.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello, there! So, this isn't gonna be like my other stories because it isn't my story. It's a collaboration I'm doing with a bunch of other FF authors. I'm starting, and at the end of it, I'll let you know who I'm passing this on to. And so on and so forth. This is a Christmas-themed story, so I hope this gets you into the holiday spirit! And there will be no question at the end. Sorry!**

**Enjoy!**

**~Caitlyn**

* * *

Mistletoe

"Joe!" Mel hollered, running down the stairs, half of her make-up on. "I need your help and I only have one eye on!"

"What?" The man in demand stepped halfway into the living room, spatula in hand. "I'm makin' waffles!"

"Time for that later. I'm late." Mel rummaged through her purse while talking until she found her mascara.

"As usual," Joe muttered under his breath. "Ow! You slapped me!" Joe cried out, more out of surprise that actual pain, though he clutched his arm for dramatic effect.

"Poor baby. Here," The harried-looking blonde woman shoved a paper in his face. "That's all the stuff we need for Christmas. Don't question it, just get it." She instructed as she hurried out the door. "Bye Lennox! Bye Ryder!" She called to her niece and nephew before exiting the house and slamming the door behind her with a loud bang.

"It's like I'm working for the CIA with this need to know stuff." Joe grumbled to himself as he stalked back into the kitchen, scanning the list as he walked. "Where am I supposed to get 'Antelope Powder'?"

"Yes. Yes, I understand. Uh-huh. Okay, bye." Mel hung up as she breezed in through the kitchen doorway. "I am home, and I shall grace you with my presence." Mel informed Joe, setting her purse down on the counter. "Did you go shopping yet?"

Joe looked up from the pot in which he was currently dumping vegetables in. "Yeah, I got everything. Even your..." He paused, glancing at the bag of groceries sitting on the corner of the counter. "Antelope powder. What is that for, anyway?"

"Thank you, Joe!" Mel squealed avoiding the question, as she grabbed the bag and ran out of the room as if she were five years old.

Two seconds later she came back in. "Actually, the antelope powder belongs in here." Mel took the canister out of the bag with one well-manicured hand and pushed it across the counter to Joe before running out again. Once she was gone, the muscular man grabbed a spatula and slowly, as if whatever was inside would bite him, pushed the can as far away as possible before going back to his cooking.

Glittering strands of gold-and-silver garland lined the crown molding of the living room on all four sides, and red-and-green throw pillows had taken place of the normal ones on their couch. A large Christmas tree stood tall and proud in the center of the living room, where Mel was teetering on a stepladder, trying to reach the top of the tree, with a classic star in hand. She wasn't off balance because of her precarious position- no, it was because of Joe- whose hands were currently on her hips, trying to steady her and were instead doing the exact opposite.

"Almost... there..." She stretched out her arm as far as she could go, and managed to nestle the golden star on the top of the tree- and then she realized she was about to fall sideways. Apparently Joe realized it too, because two seconds later she found herself in his arms.

"Nice balance, Burke." The muscular man quipped as he lowered her to the ground, hands staying for just a second longer, making her wonder if it was more than just a friendly touch- well, catch, to be more accurate.

"I don't see you putting the star up there. You're too top-heavy anyhow." She fired back, albeit slightly shaken.

"Guys, I could have done that easily." Ryder complained from off to the side, where he and Lennox had been watching from the landing on the stairs, leaning on the rail. That comment earned him two equally annoyed glares that said _this-is-not-your-sass-off_.

"Ryder, this is the part where we make up an excuse to leave Aunt Mel and Joe to do... well, whatever they do when we're not here." Lennox announced, yanking her brother up by the collar of his shirt and half-dragging the gangly teenager up the stairs as he protested.

"We don't do anythi- oh forget it." Mel gave up trying to deny anything to the empty space where her charges had been a few seconds ago.

"And with that, I'll also take my leave." Joe decided aloud, and deeply bowed to Mel. "Madame Burke." And then he turned and left, presumably out to pick up some poor girl in a bar.

"Ah, hell." Mel grumbled, and went off to decorate the kitchen.

"Holy Christmas..." Were the first words out of Joe's mouth as he stepped into the kitchen, aka, the new Christmas Wonderland. Mini wreaths hung off of every available knob, and there was even more garland in the kitchen than in the living room. Icicle lights sparkled from where Mel had hung them in the windows, and all of the normally yellow kitchen towels had been replaced with ones with Santa faces on them. "Well, well, well, would ya look at that, Marty!" Joe exclaimed, using a heavy Jersey accent as his eyes landed upon the platter of cookies cooling on the counter. He reached out to take one of the golden-brown, red-and-green chip cookies when the back of his hand was swatted by a plastic spatula. Holding the spatula was one Mel Burke. "Ow!" He complained, clutching his now-wounded hand

"Paws off my cookies." She warned, pointing the spatula as him in a surprisingly threatening way.

"This could be considered abuse, y'know." Joe warned, pointing at his slightly red hand.

Mel just rolled her eyes. "Poor baby."

"You gotta kiss it and make it all better." Joe informed the woman, holding out his hand and giving her the famous _Smolder_.

"Ew. Seriously, guys, can I get some juice _without_ having to walk through a battlefield of sexual tension?" Lennox complained, coming in at the worst possibe moment - as usual - as she trotted down the stairs, a half-amused-half-annoyed smile on her face.

"What? Len, I don't know what you're talking about-" Mel began, while Joe simultaneously protested "We're not, you don't, I-"

"Just get together already!" The younger girl exclaimed, and the two adults realized that in that moment, Lennox was wiser than the two of them combined.

The the blonde-and-pink-haired girl trotted back up the stairs, leaving Mel and Joe to exchange awkward glances with each other.

"That was..."

"Yeah, I know. I..."

The two mumbled awkward excuses and both walked away from each other, eyes down, ducking heads as if to escape the tension in the room.

"Oh no, I'm going to the living room, you stay in here." Mel finally said when she realized they were both heading toward the living room door.

"Burke, your "Winter Wonderland" is in here, don't you have more Santas to put up?" He challenged, stepping closer.

"No..." Mel paused, glancing at the already over-done kitchen. "I mean, I did, but... Can't we just go into the living room together? Like mature adults?"

Joe paused, as if that idea hadn't occurred to him. "Oh... Yeah, we can, of course. We're grown ups, after all."

"Yeah." And so the grown-ups pushed open the door and tried to go into the living room. At the same time. "Joe, let me go first, I'm the lady." Mel demanded, trying to shove the muscular body-builder out of the way, which felt like trying to push a brick wall over.

"Well you're shoving me like a man." He grumbled, but relented and stepped back for the woman to go in first.

"Oh, thanks, Longo." She looked surprised as she walked in. "I thought we were gonna do the thinn where we bicker until some sort of crisis or person, or person with a crisis interrupts us." Mel chuckled, walking with him over to the window. "Let's just make sure no one's house is on fire." She joked, looking out onto the calm street that was currently blanketed in snow. "Okay, we're good."

"Ah, Burke?" Mel glanced at Joe, whose eyes were trained on the ceiling. "I found your crisis."

Mel followed her manny's gaze and found herself staring at, of course, the mistletoe she'd hung a week ago.

"Really, Mel?" Joe asked, looking at her and raising an eyebrow. "If you wanted to kiss me, all you had to do was ask." He added in a lower voice.

She shoved him in the shoulder. "You wish, buddy. I didn't think anyone would stand here, y'know. _Especially_ not you and me."

Joe shrugged. "We still have to kiss." He teased her. "Otherwise it's bad luck."

"A broke guy who was caught up in a Ponzi scheme conducted by my brother-in-law is my nanny, my sister's in jail, and my niece is leaving for college soon. I don't think my luck can get much worse." Mel protested, trying to give him a sarcastic smile and failed. She realized she was breathing quickly and tried to slow down, and think rationally.

The man feigned injury, clutching his heart. "That hurts, Burke. I'm one of the best things that's ever happened to you." He leaned closer, and Mel leaned back, ignoring that silly fluttering in her heart. It meant nothing. He was her obnoxious nanny, not someone she could _like_ like that- or could she?

"Well, Longo..." Mel tried to come up with a plausible comeback, but she found her mind blank for once, and saw two eyes boring into hers, and did the only thing that came to her mind.

She leaned up and kissed him. Joe wrapped his arms around her waist, gently kissing her back, both of them taking their time and savoring the moment when their walls, walls that were built of sarcasm, thin lies, and stolen glances, were knocked down- for good this time.

Joe pulled away- too soon, Mel thought. "Burke, you know what this means, right?"

Mel tried to collect her thoughts, her heart singing, and Lennox's voice sounding in her head: _Finally!_ "Uhm... No."

"It's gonna be really awkward washing your delicates. Ow! Stop hitting me!"

* * *

**And the person I'm passing this on to is (drumroll, please) BellaItaliana93! So I'll post my next Ever After chapter when BellaItaliana93's part comes out.**

**BYENOW!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello, and welcome to the fourth chapter of Under the Mistletoe. And yeah, I know what you're thinking. "Caitlyn, where are chapters 2 & 3?" Why, they are on BellaItaliana93 and xfirefly9x 's pages, respectively. So go check those out.**

**For those of you who follow my other longfics, I should be updating soon, I've just been busy (translation: lazy) what with my baking, blogging, and blogging about baking. Oh, and schoolwork. But that's a minor detail.**

**To be clear, this is the last chapter of this fic. It is short, but sweet, like every Melissa and Joey episode ever.**

**Enjoy!**

**~Caitlyn**

* * *

"Hey, Ma! No, it's Joey!" Joe yelled into the phone.

He'd avoided the seemingly inevitable conversation with Mel yet again buy pulling the single, most douchey, yet effective card yet. Calling his mother. Which would involve a lot of yelling. He was hiding out in the kitchen, wiping the counter with one hand while holding his phone with the other.

"No, Ma, I'm not coming to Jersey for the New Year! Well I'm sorry! I still love you, so don't guilt trip me like that!" He hollered, rolling his eyes. "Yes, I'm well-fed- I'm the one cooking! That "Mel-girl" is fine, Ma." He lowered his voice at the last sentence, his voice almost reverent.

Mel hadn't planned on eavesdropping on Joe's conversation- well, actually she had, but it was inevitable anyway, what with all of the yelling coming from the kitchen. She actually had to peek from around the corner of the landing of the kitchen stairs to make sure he hadn't walked away after that last sentence. The man had stopped cleaning the counter, and was instead looking out the window.

"What do you mean you can't hear me? The phone is smashed against your ear!" He resumed is what he called "affectionate yelling", and Mel quickly hid behind the wall again as he turned back to the oven. "No, don't even bother suggesting that. It's not like that. I mean, we can hardly stand each other." At those words, Mel's heart sank. Sure, they were always at each other's throats, but it was always in a nice way, if that was even possible, and at the end of the day, Joe was almost always her favorite person. Clearly, he didn't feel the same way.

"No, believe me, I do. All of them. She doesn't see me like that, Ma. I work for her," Mel furrowed her brow. _All of them _what? "Yeah, I love her. But it can't happen. Imagine what it would be like if we did go out- we'd probably argue more than we already do!"

At this, Mel had to clap a hand over her own mouth to keep from giggling from the excitement of his declaration of love, and the truthfulness of his statement about their arguing. He was probably right. As long as he _was_ talking about her. She paused, wondering it there had been any half-naked girls flouncing in or out of her house lately, and could come up with none.

"Okay, tell Tony I say hi! Love you too!" He hung up, still leaning back against the counter.

Mel stood up and straightened her dress, preparing herself for the talk they _had_ to have. They would just have it now, lay it all out in the open, and see what happened. Fool-proof plan.

She trotted down the stairs as casually as possible, swinging herself into the kitchen area, habitually brushing past Joe as she reached for a wine glass.

"And the Queen has arrived. Tell me, to what honor do I owe this gracing of your presence?" Joe quipped, turning to look at her.

Mel paused, and then grabbed another glass for Joe. "Drinks and talking, Longo. You're right, we need to talk about what happened. For real"

Joe shrugged, and picked out a cheap bottle of wine from the rack and displayed it to the woman, wordlessly asking if the choice was appropriate. In response, Mel held out both of their glasses to him. As he poured, she felt a pang run through her, because this, this right here, was the example of who they were. Under the bickering and arguing, at the end of the day, they were two people who needed no words. So why were they afraid of this impending talk?

"That kiss... It brought a lot of things to light for me, Joe." Mel began quietly, taking a sip of her drink.

Joe nodded. "It just reinforced feelings for you that I already had," He admitted. "Mel, look, I know you. I know your favorite song, your favorite color, your least favorite type of car, and the kinds of dressing you refuse to have on your salad. I could go on and on about what I learned about you, the things I learned from you, and the most wonderful years of my life that I've had- and how those years have been the ones I spent with you. I've lived with you and my feelings quietly-"

"I wouldn't say you were _quiet..._" Mel muttered, causing Joe to glare at her. "Sorry, continue."

"But I can't hide it anymore. You're the only person I want now. Not some girl named Chardonnay, not some girl who models for Victoria's Secret, but the woman who wears bright orange dresses, and likes baskets full of kittens sitting on a rainbow. The woman who is the youngest city councilwoman of Toledo. I want you, Mel."

Mel bit her lip halfway though, and was now trying to blink back tears and bite back laughter as she struggled to string together the right words to reply. "Oh, Joe." She managed, and let herself fall into the muscular man's arms. "Ditto." She murmured, and he pulled away, a half-amused, half-incredulous expression on his face.

"'Ditto'? I expect more than a "ditto", Burke. I just poured my heart out to you-with no preparation, eihter, I might add." He said, and Mel rolled her eyes.

"Just be grateful that I love you, Longo." She tried to use the "L" word as casually as possible, glancing away after she said it, cheeks red as the apples in their fruit bowl.

"You love me?" He asked, and she looked at him to find no mocking in his face or tone, but only pure, sincere hope.

"I..." She sighed and simply pulled his face closer to hers, their lips just millimeters away, "Do." And finally she let their lips touch another time, and this time, she felt no hesitation, and knew that there was no place she'd rather be than in this man's arms. She thanked God that she had let it all go, that day under the mistletoe.

* * *

**Aww love and happiness for Mel and Joe! Gotta love 'em.**

**I hope you like the collab fic!**

**BYENOW!**


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